The Cancer Biology emphasis area focuses on training future cancer researchers in the molecular and cellular bases of cancer and in the mechanisms of prevention and treatment. Graduate students in Cancer Biology can work in multiple cancer research labs at Penn State that span several departments and colleges, and can take coursework that covers current concepts in the molecular and cellular biology of cancer and translational cancer research.
In addition, our students can interact with and shadow clinical oncologists at Mt. Nittany Cancer Care Partnership in order to gain insight into clinical aspects of cancer and its treatment, and they can interact with cancer researchers in the Penn State Cancer Institute by working in their labs or through the annual research retreat, program meetings seminars, and journal clubs.
Our students have access to state-of-the-art equipment in multiple core facilities to conduct, as well as the opportunity to present their research to peers at Penn State and at national and international meetings.
Cancer Biology Faculty
Marco Archetti
- Associate Professor of Biology
Evolutionary Genetics. Cancer dynamics. Defective interfering viruses. Evolutionary game theory.
Manyu Du
- Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
How transcription machineries and regulatory DNA elements organize in 3D in the nucleus to regulate gene expression.
Esther Gomez
- Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering
How the interplay of chemical and mechanical signals acts to control cell behavior and function and the progression of. . .
Urara Hasegawa
- Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
The development of polymeric nanomaterials for controlled delivery of drug and bioactive signaling molecules
Daniel Hayes
- Director, Center of Excellence in Industrial Biotechnology
- Huck Chair in Nanotherapeutics and Regenerative Medicine
Biomaterials engineering for applications ranging from regenerative medicine to lab-on-a-chip technologies. An emphasis on. . .
Joshua Lambert
- Professor of Food Science
Dietary polyphenols in prevention of obesity and fatty liver disease; efficacy and mechanisms of action of food-derived. . .
Xiaojun (Lance) Lian
- Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Human Stem Cell Engineering; Genome Editing via CRISPR-Cas9; Epigenome Editing and Epigenetics.
Kateryna Makova
- Director of the Center for Medical Genomics
- Professor of Biology
Molecular evolution, population genetics, evolutionary genomics, bioinformatics, and human genetics.
Melanie McReynolds
- Huck Early Career Chair in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
The biochemistry behind aging and its intersection with stress, with the long-term goal of identifying strategies that. . .
Scott Medina
- Director, Center for Biodevices
- Korb Early Career Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Design of bio-inspired functional materials that serve as new tools in precision medicine. Understanding how peptides and. . .
Denise Okafor
- Huck Early Career Chair in Biophysics
- Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Structural mechanisms of signaling and regulation in protein complexes.
Andrew Patterson
- Associate Director, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences
- Professor of Molecular Toxicology
The Patterson lab is focused on understanding the host-metabolite-microbiome axis
Robert Paulson
- Professor of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences
The Paulson lab studies the mechanisms that regulate tissue regeneration with a focus on understanding the response to anemic. . .
Gary Perdew
- H. Thomas and Dorothy Willits Hallowell Chair in Agricultural Sciences
Mechanisms of receptor-mediated carcinogenesis. Regulation and functional analysis of Ah receptor activity: role in cancer. . .
Jeffrey Peters
- Distinguished Professor of Molecular Toxicology and Carcinogenesis
- Interim Director, The Penn State Cancer Institute
Roles of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) in the regulation of homeostasis, toxicology, and. . .
Kumble Sandeep Prabhu
- Professor of Immunology and Molecular Toxicology
Molecular mechanisms by which bioactives such as selenium, omega-3 fatty acids, and other products of natural origin alter. . .
Joseph Reese
- Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Gene regulation in cell cycle and DNA damage control; regulation of DNA damage-induced transcription.
Lorraine Santy
- Associate Chair, Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences Graduate Degree Program
- Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
The signals and processes that initiate migration in epithelial cells.
Carly Schissel
- Assistant Professor of Chemistry
The discovery, design, and synthesis of bioactive peptides with unusual amino acids and structures to create novel peptides. . .
Idan Shalev
- Professor of Biobehavioral Health
Interdisciplinary approach to identify mechanisms underpinning the biological embedding of stress across the lifespan with a. . .
Amir Sheikhi
- Huck Early Career Chair in Biomaterials and Regenerative Engineering
- Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering
Micro- and nanoengineered soft materials for medicine and the environment; microfluidic-enabled biomaterials for tissue. . .
Scott Showalter
- Professor of Chemistry
- Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Biophysical Chemistry applied to solution NMR spectroscopy of partially disordered proteins. NMR studies of protein dynamics. . .
Vishal Singh
- Associate Professor of Nutritional Physiology and Microbiome
Ruobo Zhou
- Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Quantitatively and functionally understanding the compartmentalization and spatiotemporal organization of protein-protein and. . .